Shebang is the latest instrumental modern jazz album by Oren Ambarchi who is joined this time by among others the legendary BJ Cole, who I love when he worked with John Cale among hundreds of other acts he's worked with, Sonic Youth collaborator Jim O'Rourke, Julia Reidy and Chris Abrahams, Sam Dunscombe, Joe Talia, Johan Berthling and Jon Christensen round out the musicians involved in this project.
Shebang is in four parts of instrumental experimentation that begins with Shebang I that has lots of carefully played guitar that at times almost sounds like a keyboard but is being picked at and has an undercurrent rhythm that all the picking decorates and eventually a few bass notes are added to the mix as you lay back and let it all caress your ears. Eventually the tone changes and mutates and it almost has a glacial undertow slowly shifting the guitar pattern.
In time as some super spare cymbal and drum work come in Shebang II opens, you can suddenly feel the bass shaking at your shins, the guitar sounds like a refugee from a late 70's funk record, as that bass note keeps on hitting, then BJ Cole's slide guitar come in, sounding like he’s expanding on the ideas he's been given, the tune expands outwards around the percussive pattern into something else, that isn't quite as disorientating as the video for the tune is.
The shift into Shebang III is marked by a musical outburst and the piano seemingly taking over as the central instrument as the notes cascade around you and the bass seems to float through them slowly and rather deliberately as the guitar slithers through the speakers every now and then as the piano rises then falls.
This mutates into Shebang IV as the pace quickens, it feels like a shot in the arm, as the piano's duke it out against the odd pedal steel interjection, the ever-present bass every few seconds, so sparing yet crucial to making this all work, as the guitar get busier the music becomes more intense, before during the last couple of minutes everything slowly falls away.
Find out more at https://www.dragcity.com/products/shebang https://orenambarchi.bandcamp.com/album/shebang
